Standing on my Soap Box

So this is how I ended the last blog in which I talked about resolutions… There is one other way to make your resolutions work, tell someone. Be accountable. So with that said here is what I propose…you are my “someone”, and I will keep you updated throughout the next year. If you would like to join me please do so, the more the merrier…

In this blog we will get into the “nitty gritty”. My resolutions (if you couldn’t already guess), are to, in a nutshell, become healthy. To do that, I need to start exercising 3 times a week, and lose weight.

In a world of instant everything I would love to say that I will reach my ultimate goal in one year. My goal is to get back to where I was when I was 26, which means losing 100 lbs. It is possible to do that in a year, but I want to ensure that this is doable, and not overwhelming so I will set a goal of 52 lbs, which is a pound a week. More would be better, and I will not make a fuss if  that happens.

So how will we do this (soap box please)… I declare that January 3rd will be the day of new beginnings. While I believe that I am in shape, because you know, round is a shape, it is just not the shape I am looking to be in. I will therefore start by walking for 30 minutes. My walks will start with walking for 5 minutes as a “warm up”, and then do a little stretching. I will then walk for 20 minutes at a pace that I can comfortably do, while still getting my heart rate up. After 20 minutes of the faster pace, I will slow my pace down, change the music on my iPod, to a little slower beat, and do that for 5 minutes. That will be my 30 minutes. I will do this three times a week for the weeks of January 1 and January 8th. Then for the weeks of January 15 and 22, I will add a minute of running following by 2 minutes of walking into my 20 minutes of faster paced walking. (e.g. after 5 minutes of warm up I will run for 1 minute, walk for 2 minutes then run for 1 minute, then walk for2 minutes and continue this for the full 20 minutes)

The next part of this whole getting healthy is my eating. I read a book By Julia Havey on Vice-Busting she talks about eating foods that she had too much off, foods that were contributing to her being heavy, but that she had a lot of. So I reviewed my eating habits and I drink coffee. At one point I was drinking the equivalent of 5 extra large double doubles at Tim Hortons a day. That is 280 calories per cup, or if you do the math, I was drinking 1400 calories per day in coffee, which is almost my calorie allotment for the day just in coffee, cream and sugar. Then I took a look at the chips I eat – Lay’s original chip for 1 oz of chips (one of those small packages) is 160 calories. Times that by 5 (my afternoon snack at work) and I was eating 800 calories. So 9800 for my coffee for the week and 800 for my chips and I am consuming 10,600 calories in junk per week (it takes 3500 calories to gain a pound, which means I should be gaining 3 lbs per week if I keep this up.) So, I am going to cut out MOST of my cofee (I will limit myself to one per day) and I will not eat chips. I will also change. Take a look at your daily intake- what are you taking in too much off?

So, with that in mind, who is with me? Email me and let me know if you are interested in joining me in this?